French Broad Paddle

Website Redesign & Custom Code – Frenchbroadpaddle.com

We were very excited to give the French Broad River Paddle Trail website a face lift and add some cool new features for everyone to enjoy. For those who don’t know, the French Broad River in Western North Carolina was one of the most polluted rivers in the United States. But with the passage of the Clean Water Act in 1972, the river has become a paddling destination for people in Asheville and other areas of the Southeast.

The paddle trail website offers information about the French Broad River, its condition and the ability to rent campsites for overnight paddling trips. We were asked by the French Broad River Keeper to help redesign the website and give it some new features. We created and customized a river gauge system that imports and graphically displays hourly changes of water levels and flow rates, from multiple location along the river as reported by the U.S. Geological Survey. We further improved user experience by adding the Trip Suggestion page. This page gives information on the difficulty and distance of planned paddling trips for overnight camping. Paddlers can now securely reserve and purchase campsites through our new reservation system. With these improvements, the French Broad Paddle site is now a one stop planning and reservation experience for novice and experienced paddlers alike.